Volta
Politics538

King Seong Moves the Capital to Sabi

King Seong moved the capital to Sabi (Buyeo) on the Geum River plain and renamed the country Nambuyeo ("Southern Buyeo").

Five-story stone pagoda of Jeongnimsa, at the center of the Sabi capital (Buyeo)
Five-story stone pagoda of Jeongnimsa, at the center of the Sabi capital (Buyeo)

Bernard Gagnon · CC0 · Source

Ungjin (Gongju), ringed by hills and river, was easy to defend but too cramped for growth. Steadied under Muryeong, Baekje under King Seong moved to Sabi, with the broad plain of the lower Geum and an open route to the sea. The name Nambuyeo proclaimed descent from Buyeo.

Seong created 22 central offices and divided the capital into five wards and the provinces into five regions. He traded with Liang, promoted Buddhism — the monk Gyeomik, back from India, spread the Vinaya school — and in 552 sent images and sutras to Wa.

In 551 he recovered the lower Han with Silla, lost it to Silla in 553 and was killed the next year at Gwansan Fortress. Sabi remained the capital until Baekje fell in 660; Busosan Fortress, the five-storey pagoda of Jeongnimsa and the Neungsan-ri temple site, where the Gilt-bronze Incense Burner of Baekje was found, survive from this era.

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States and rulers at the time
Baekje — King Seong
Places
Sabi (Busosanseong), Ungjin (Gongsanseong)

People

  • King Seong of BaekjeAD 554

    monarch · Twenty-sixth king of Baekje, who moved the capital to Sabi and died at Gwansan Fortress

Before and after

Earlier
AD 532 Silla Annexes Geumgwan Gaya
Later
AD 539 Gilt-bronze Standing Buddha with Inscription of the 7th Year of Yeonga

Themes that include this event

  • Local Administration Through the AgesAD 250 – 1896

    From the five regions of the Three Kingdoms through nine provinces, the five circuits and two frontiers and the eight provinces to the thirteen — how directly the centre came to rule the regions

  • Buyeo2000 BC – 1376

    From the Songguk-ri village to Sabi, Baekje’s last capital — the Geum River town where Baekje culture bloomed and fell